Welcome to the IAEG Connector — A Special Message From Scott Burns, President, IAEG

I am very excited to introduce to you the electronic newsletter from IAEG that we have called the IAEG Connector! For the past three years, our IAEG Executive Committee has been trying to figure out a way to increase communication with all of our 4,300 members around the world. We have newsletters come out three to four times a year, but in between there is very little connection. We have teamed up with a company called Multiview to produce a weekly newsletter that will include information on IAEG, our upcoming congress, commissions, news of national groups, IAEG awards, affiliated conferences, obituaries, deadlines and geological news from around the world! It is free to us because it will be paid for by advertisers of our profession with their logos throughout the newsletter. Starting with this issue, we will have a small section on meet your officers. We will continue with the traditional newsletter from the secretary general's office three to four times a year — that news is important and is presented in a different format. This newsletter truly connects all engineering geologists around the world. Enjoy!

IAEG Martin Culshaw is an independent engineering geological editor, researcher and consultant. He was Director of Environment and Hazards at the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Survey's Chief Engineering Geologist until 2008. He is Visiting Honorary Professor in Engineering Geology at the School of Civil Engineering, University of Birmingham, and an Honorary Research Associate at the BGS. He has been involved in research into the relationship between litho-stratigraphy and geotechnical properties, environmental and engineering geological mapping, geohazard assessment, site investigation, urban geoscience and the application of geology to land use planning for over 40 years. He is a former Vice President of the Geological Society. He has published over 180 papers, books and articles and over 120 technical reports. He received the Engineering Group of the Geological Society's Award for 1989, the Geological Society's Glossop Medal in 2004 and the E B Burwell Jr Award from the Geological Society of America in 2006. In 2010 he was awarded the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment's Hans Cloos Medal. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment. He lives near Nottingham, UK, and is married to Philippa. He has a son and a daughter, and his interests include gardening, philately, model railways and soccer.

Mark your calendar to join us for the 61st AEG Annual Meeting/13th IAEG Congress in San Francisco, California on September 17-21, 2018!
AEG is partnering with the International Association of Engineering Geologists and the Environment (IAEG) to host the first ever Congress in the United States in IAEG’s 54-year history.
The 2018 meeting will have a five-day format featuring prominent national and international keynote speakers, four days of technical sessions and symposia, and an all-day Wednesday tour of local geology for full meeting registrants and guests.

Start Date
17 September 2018
End Date
21 September 2018

Note: You must register for the conference by the end of the week in order to get your abstract published in the program and your article (if you submitted an article to the proceedings) published in the proceedings.

Note 2: Solidarity Fund - We have set aside some money in the treasury to help young conference participants from low-income countries to attend the meeting. To apply, please email our president with the request: Dr. Scott Burns, burnss@pdx.edu. The money would be applied toward registration.

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IAEGThe Canadian Geotechnical Society is pleased to invite you to Geohazards 7, the seventh Canadian Geohazards Conference. Geohazards 7 will be held June 3-6 at the Coast Canmore Hotel & Conference Centre in Canmore, Alberta. The CGS's Geohazards conferences are the premiere forums in Canada for the sharing and dissemination of scientific and engineering knowledge related to geohazard assessment and risk management.
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IAEGWe are delighted to invite you to take part in MINEX Europe Mining & Exploration Forum we are organising in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, 12-14 June 2018 under the theme "sustainable development of the Western Tethyan metallogenic resources." The forum will provide insights into exciting mining projects developed across the Western Tethyan regions and will highlight innovation trends for exploration and extraction, processing, waste management and mine closure across the European continent and globally. Over 200 international delegates are expected to attend the forum from the Balkans countries, EU, Canada, U.S. and Australia.READ MORE

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory via Phys.orgBy looking at an ancient Martian meteorite that landed in the Sahara Desert, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators have determined how and when the red planet's crustal topographic and geophysical divide formed. Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 is the oldest Martian meteorite discovered to date, at approximately 4.4 billion years old.READ MORE

ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies via ScienceDailyCorals growing in high-latitude reefs in Western Australia can regulate their internal chemistry to promote growth under cooler temperatures, according to new research at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at The University of Western Australia.
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ReutersUsing data collected from underwater drones, merchant ships, fishing boats and even explorers, a new scientific project aims to map the ocean floor by 2030 and solve one of the world's enduring mysteries. With 190 million square kilometers (73 million square miles) of water — or about 93 percent of the world’s oceans with a depth of over 200 meters (650 feet) — yet to be charted, the initiative is ambitious.
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University of Leeds via Phys.orgCrystals from the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption have demonstrated a new way to recognise pre-eruption signals at Eyjafjallajökull and potentially other, similar volcanoes around the world.
A team of volcanologists from the University of Leeds, Iceland and the British Geological Survey have studied the chemistry of the crystals flung out during the early stages of the 2010 airline-grounding eruption in Iceland.
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Stanford University via Phys.org Molecules called sterols linger in soils and rocks for billions of years and have served as a tell-tale sign to geologists that the plants, animals and fungi that produce them must once have lived nearby. But a new discovery could have geologists rethinking what they've learned from that rock record.
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Montana State University via Phys.orgMontana State University scientists have found a new lineage of microbes living in Yellowstone National Park's thermal features that sheds light on the origin of life, the evolution of archaeal life and the importance of iron in early life. Professor William Inskeep and his team of researchers published their findings May 14 in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology.READ MORE